The Remarkable Shift of SEO, and Its New Battle With AI.

If you’ve ever Googled something at 2 a.m. while desperately trying to finish an assignment, congratulations — you’ve contributed to the global search economy.

For years, Google has been the go-to place for finding information online. Businesses have spent years trying to get their websites to appear at the top of search results through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). But now, there’s a new player in town: AI search.

Tools such as ChatGPT and Google's AI-powered search features can answer questions directly, meaning users don't always need to click through to a website. This has led to plenty of discussion about whether SEO is becoming less important. So, is SEO dying?

Not quite. But it is definitely changing.

What Actually Is SEO?

SEO is essentially about helping search engines understand your website and making it more likely that people will find you when searching for something relevant.

For example, a Perth café might want to appear when someone searches "best coffee near ECU." SEO can help make that happen through useful content, relevant keywords, technical improvements to the website and building online credibility.

Traditionally, the process was fairly straightforward: someone searched for something, found your website in the results, clicked on it, and hopefully became a customer. AI is starting to change that journey.

The Rise of AI Search

Think about how you might search for something today compared with a few years ago. Instead of typing "best laptops for university students," you can now ask an AI tool something much more specific, such as, "What's the best laptop for a university student studying marketing with a $1,500 budget?"

The AI can then generate a personalised response by bringing together information from multiple sources. For users, this is incredibly convenient because you can get an answer without having to open ten different websites and work out which one actually knows what it's talking about.

For websites, however, there's a catch: people may not need to click on them anymore.

Research from the Pew Research Center found that when a Google AI summary appeared, users clicked traditional search-result links during just 8% of visits, compared with 15% when no AI summary appeared. That's a significant difference for businesses that rely on organic search traffic.

So, Is SEO Becoming Less Important?

In some ways, yes. But saying "SEO is dead" is probably a little dramatic.

Google itself says that traditional SEO practices remain relevant for its AI search features. Websites still need to be crawlable, technically sound, useful and filled with helpful content.

What is changing is the goal of SEO. Instead of only asking, "How do I rank number one on Google?", marketers increasingly need to think about how they can make a business visible, useful and trustworthy wherever people are searching. That could be Google, ChatGPT, social media, YouTube, Reddit or other platforms.

From Keywords to Questions

AI is also changing the way people search. Traditional SEO has often focused heavily on keywords such as "digital marketing Perth." Now, people can ask much more conversational questions, such as, "How can a small Perth business use digital marketing to attract more customers?"

This makes understanding search intent even more important. Businesses need to understand what people actually want to know, rather than simply finding a keyword and forcing it into a blog post five times.

And thankfully, the days of writing something like "Digital marketing Perth is the best digital marketing Perth solution for digital marketing in Perth" should be behind us. Hopefully.

What Does Good SEO Look Like Now?

The fundamentals haven't disappeared. Businesses still need to create useful and original content, have fast and mobile-friendly websites, understand what their audience is searching for and build credibility online.

The biggest difference is that SEO is becoming less about chasing algorithms and more about creating content that genuinely deserves to be discovered.

The Future of SEO

So, is AI killing SEO? Not really. It's evolving it.

People may search differently in the future, and they may click fewer traditional links, but businesses will still need to be discovered. The future of SEO isn't necessarily about getting the number-one blue link on Google. It's about making sure your business has something valuable to say and making sure search engines and AI systems can find, understand and trust it.

For digital marketers, that's not the end of SEO. It's the next chapter.

Need Help Keeping Up?

SEO and AI are changing quickly, but you don't have to figure it all out yourself. Digital Marketing Crew is a Perth-based digital marketing agency helping businesses improve their SEO, content and online presence in an increasingly AI-driven world.

Ready to get your business found? Check out Digital Marketing Crew to see how we can help.